As well as telling his side of the story in the Tomes affair, pointing a finger of blame at an allegedly errant Centenier in the Beast of Jersey case and making sensational claims about Mark Newall, Sir Peter also criticises the man who succeeded him as Bailiff, Sir Philip Bailhache.
The two men were on opposing sides in the long-running power struggle between the Jersey Arts Centre and the Jersey Arts Trust, and after Sir Peter’s retirement in 1995 he became chairman of the trust.
At the time they were trying to raise funds for the restoration of the Opera House but their efforts were being undermined by the public row between the two bodies – Sir Peter claims that a substantial donation from a Swiss bank fell through as direct result of the JEP ‘stirring up’ the dispute.
But he also says the intransigence of the Arts Centre did not help – and that its patron, Sir Philip Bailhache, ‘unwisely’ supported them.
Sir Peter also blames much of the dispute on the centre’s then director, Rod McLoughlin, who, ironically, was later to become Bailiff’s Secretary to Sir Philip.
